1. Technical Field
The invention relates to planning boards. More particularly, the invention relates to a magnetic planning board with stackable, snap-to-grid, self-aligning items.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Magnetic white boards, planning boards, and calendar boards are a ubiquitous element of the modern workplace. For example, Magna Visual, Inc. of St. Louis, Mo., offers a planning kit in which a number of rectangular items of varied color and labeled with textual information may be affixed to a magnetic board. Each item can be labeled with information such as a project name, a team member name, a task, or a date, and arranged to illustrate the plan of action required to reach a particular objective.
Because such information is typically structured in nature, the Magna Visual planning kit, as with many other similar products, features an embedded grid that enables users to align the items affixed to the board more accurately. However, such grids serve only as a visual guide. There is no mechanical action that guides the user in aligning the affixed items to the board or to one another. In practice, accurately aligning the items to the visual grid is a delicate, time consuming process that distracts users from the underlying planning activity. Indeed, the visual grid often merely calls attention to improperly aligned items.
What is needed is a more convenient method of accurately aligning the affixed items to the board and, therefore, to one another.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,626,303 does disclose a magnetic display board that provides accurate mounting of display articles. In the disclosed display board, each display article must be mounted “at a pre-determined display location,” as is suitable for the display of set collection of items for sale in a department store. Such an approach does not provide the flexibility that is required for other applications, such as planning and calendar boards. Also, because magnets are directly affixed to the rear surface of the display articles, the displayed articles are not positioned flush with the display boards but, instead, hover above the surface. While this may be appropriate for a sales display, it compromises the aesthetics of the display in many other applications, such as planning and calendar boards.
Furthermore, the magnet itself must serve as the bearing surface between the article and the display board. This bearing surface may not provide desirable friction characteristics should the affixed items be repositioned using a sliding motion, as is common during the use of planning boards and planning calendars.
It would be advantageous to provide a simple, yet flexible mechanism for affixing items to a magnetic board such that they are accurately aligned to the board and to one another. It would also be advantageous if such mechanism allowed positioning and repositioning of the items as desired by the user, including stacked configurations. It would also be desirable if contact between the items and the board is aesthetically pleasing, and provides a bearing surface that allows for repositioning of items using a sliding motion. Further, it would be advantageous if aligning the items is convenient for the user and does not distract from the primary task at hand.